If you were were watching the June NHL Draft on TV from Dallas, you probably remember the fan the cameras caught in the stands wearing a Canadiens sweater and a look of shock with her hands to her face after the team selected Kotkaniemi with the No. 3 overall pick rather than Brady Tkachuk or Filip Zadina.

In the six months since then, we’ve watched Kotkaniemi go from the shy, quiet kid at the summer evaluation camp who was hard to get more than two words out of, to a player who looked totally overmatched in the first game of the NHL Rookie Showdown in Laval against Tkachuk and the Senators, to a player who beat the odds to earn a spot on the opening night roster. He has stuck around while gaining confidence each game and becoming much more comfortable with his surroundings, displaying a great sense of humour as his English improves.

When asked after Monday’s morning skate if his father, who is visiting from Finland, is having fun watching him play, Kotkaniemi said: “I think he likes that. There’s good hot dogs in the lounge … he likes that!”

Then Kotkaniemi flashed that priceless smile of his.

After Saturday’s game, Kotkaniemi said he fed off the crowd, noting: “It was like in Drake’s concert. Everyone was cheering all the time.”

First time I remember a hockey game at the Bell Centre being compared to a rap concert, but that’s part of the refreshing beauty of talking to an 18-year-old NHLer.

One thing that has really been noticeable in recent games is that Kotkaniemi is shooting the puck more — and he has a heckuva shot with a quick release. His goal Saturday night was a goal-scorer’s goal, coming when he fired a quick shot through the legs of a defender with the puck hitting the goalpost and then bouncing in the net off goalie Mike McKenna’s back.

When asked Monday morning if he’s consciously trying to shoot more, Kotkaniemi said: “I just think that I’m not scoring too often, so I’m trying to do something that might help that.”

Keep shooting, kid.

“I think you saw that last game on the power play he had some great shooting opportunities,” coach Claude Julien said. “I think he’s got to keep taking them when they’re there. There’s no doubt he’s got a good shot and he should continue to shoot the puck. But he’s also a great playmaker. You look at Paulie Byron’s goal (against the Senators). Everybody thought (Kotkaniemi) was going to shoot, but he was smart enough to make the right play. It’s about trying to keep a good balance with him. He’s got a great shot. You want him to shoot whenever he can, but you don’t want to take his creativity away from him also. I think he has good creativity. So it’s something we don’t want to take away from him because it’s been his bread and butter for a long time. I think as he matures as a player he’ll be able to kind of balance those things out even better.”

What has impressed the coach most about Kotkaniemi so far?

“I’m impressed with the way he’s handling the whole season,” Julien said. “You get guys that come from Europe, they haven’t played in this kind of a schedule before. It’s a busy schedule with the travel and everything else and so far I think he’s handled it really well. We’re 33 games in and who knows what’s going to happen ahead of time. But so far there’s not a sign of him kind of slowing down or being overwhelmed by the schedule. So that’s pretty impressive for let alone a European player, but also an 18-year-old.”

Last season, Kotkaniemi played 57 out of 60 games with Assat Pori in the Finnish elite league, posting 10-19-29 totals. The NHL’s 82-game regular season is a much more gruelling test, but so far the kid his teammates call “KK” has been up to every challenge.

“I do my best every day and now I’m here,” Kotkaniemi said. “I can’t be more proud of myself.”

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